Chinese foreign exchange reserves post record drop

Chinas official foreign exchange reserves recorded their biggest monthly drop in at least nine years in January, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday. The source, who asked not to be identified, declined to say exactly how big the drop was.
But he said provisional figures showed it was greater than the $25.9 billion fall last October, a decline that surprised markets by its magnitude. Chinas reserves, the largest stockpile in the world, totalled $1.9460 trillion at the end of December, the latest date for which official figures are available. Chinas reserves rose by $356.2 billion in 2008, $461.9 billion in 2007 and $247.3 billion in 2006.